I would like to share how my Winrock International USAID-funded Farmer to Farmer (F2F) volunteer assignment was one of much excitement and full of very rewarding humbling experiences. One experience stands out as a professional one that led to a career culminating experience for me that I would like to share in this blog. The experience deals with my career as an irrigation agronomist/horticulturist of 42 years (1975-2017), which concentrated on “drip irrigation technology” in developed and developing countries. My initial career path in drip irrigation technology started in 1975 with my research at Virginia Tech as a Ph.D. student in the Department of Horticulture doing research on the development and use of drip irrigation on tomatoes in Western Virginia. The drip system that I was using to irrigate the tomato plants with was developed and provided for my research by Mr. Richard Chapin of Chapin Watermatics, considered to be the “Father of Drip Irrigation” in the United States.

My drip irrigation career took me to developing drip systems for bananas and pineapples in Honduras, Costa Rica, and Hawaii with Dole Foods, working with commercial drip irrigation vegetable growers in Florida. In addition, I was involved in agricultural development projects with USAID and USDA where drip irrigation for fruit and vegetable growers was emphasized in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Guinea, Senegal, and finally- in Bangladesh. The drip irrigation projects that I was involved in were not all success stories. One in particular failed in 1987 in six months after I departed the country, due to the end of the development project I was serving on. Failure occurred because there was not a dealer network for drip irrigation supplies and technical support. This failure haunted me for a long time. The training experience with Winrock International in March-April 2017 has left me very excited and encouraged about the drip irrigation systems. I used Mr. Chapin’s drip tape that was installed by the Thanarbaid banana growers in the Madhupur Upazila of Tangail District in Bangladesh through the auspices of Shalom (formerly Church of Bangladesh Social Development Programme-CBSDP and their Youth Beneficiary Group). Drip irrigation success in Bangladesh is assured via dedicated banana farmers, Winrock International, USAID, and partner, ACI Agribusiness, who works with Jain Irrigation of India, a key supplier of drip irrigation technology, including Chapin drip tape. What a rewarding experience it was to culminate my drip irrigation career knowing that drip irrigation technology in Bangladesh will thrive and serve as a food security tool to help feed the people of Bangladesh.

Dr. Kovach working with the banana farmers to connect the tubes through the bottom of the bucket to the irrigation tape.

Dr. Kovach with banana farmers over the Chapin Drip Irrigation Tape. Note the dark circles next to the black drip tape where water has come out of the water emitting orifices and began to wet the soil to supply water to the banana plants.

Chapin Bucket Drip Irrigation System supplying water to the two black drip tubes next to the banana plants. The major advantage to using drip irrigation versus the traditional irrigation method of flooding the field is in water savings, where 50% less water is needed to irrigate banana crops.

Dr. Kovach observes one of the participants pouring urea mixed water into the buckets to provide plants with water and fertilizer through the Chapin Bucket Drip system in the orchard.

Okadi Goat Raising Group reached out to our Farmer-to-Farmer team in Nepal for training on Artificial Insemination technologies and practices. They wanted to target their group members/goat farmers, local service providers, and extension workers to improve their youth-focused goat breeding program in Syangja, Nepal. Dr. Bill Foxworth of Texas Prairie View A&M University facilitated the 6-day training program, which included classroom training and hands-on demonstrations. He explained that “this assignment reaffirmed [his] desire to continue working with limited resource farmers and their countries. [He has] worked in Africa, Europe, North and South America, but this was [his] first opportunity to work in this part of Asia and it was quite rewarding.”

Dr. Foxworth observing Saanen (largest of all the dairy breeds) bucks at a community goat farm.

Garland Mason and Joshua O’Malley, two Peace Corps volunteers from neighboring districts,  also attended the training. Ms. Mason shared her reflections about the experience:

“The training was a major highlight of my service as a Peace Corps volunteer thus far. We spent the first two days of the training visiting some of the model goat farms of Syangja District and getting set up for the training. In considering the realities of goat production in a Nepali context, I found that it was immensely helpful to hear Dr. Bill’s reflections from his experience and research in America and around the world, as well as those of Mr. Sushil Aryal, of the District Livestock Service Office Syangja District.

“Once we got started with the presentation in Okadi, I found that I was in a unique position to help Dr. Bill with Nepali translation and to help situate the information that Dr. Bill provided within the Nepali context. Because I was already familiar with a lot of the scientific information and technologies that Dr. Bill described, and because I had a sense of what would be familiar and what would be new for the participants, I was able to translate the information in a way that would be accessible and easy to understand, with help from Sushil ji and Dawa Tshiring Tamang of the Agricultural and Forestry University in Chitwan. By the end of the first day of training Dr. Bill, Sushil ji, Dawa ji, and I had developed a rapport that allowed the presentation and subsequent translation to flow efficiently, and be dynamic enough to hold the participants’ interest and attention over the course of the classroom sessions. During the practical sessions, I was able to help Dr. Bill by translating his communications with Sushil ji, as well as his explanations of the practical components for the participants, and by making sure he had access to what he needed to give the demonstrations.

Ms. Mason interpreting Dr. Foxworth’s training on use of a hormone application to assist with synchronization for reproduction.

“Attending the training also gave me insight into the technologies that are available and currently in use in Nepal. I live in a comparatively underdeveloped area, and was previously unaware of some of the technologies that are accessible to rural areas of the Western Development Region. Having attended the training, I am excited to strengthen my connection with the Livestock Service Sub-Center at my site, and begin discussions with the District Livestock Office in Kushma about initiating a similar program for my village. Sushil ji, Dawa ji, and Dambar Kumari of the Nepal Agricultural Research Council based in Kathmandu, all expressed their interest in helping to facilitate such a program in Thapathana. Attending the Farmer-to-Farmer training gave me access to professional contacts who will prove invaluable in helping me train my community members, and in strengthening my ability to serve my community. With the help and support of my new professional connections, I am looking forward to bringing the technologies presented at the workshop to my village of Thapathana, Parbat. I am excited to continue to work with them and foster these connections so that other volunteers might be able to take advantage of them as well.

Dr. Foxworth and Ms. Mason explaining how to use a vaginal speculum to detect heat signs for reproduction.

“Sometimes as a Peace Corps volunteer working in a rural agricultural village in Nepal, it is difficult to feel that my limited and United States-centric expertise is useful for villagers that have been working in agriculture in these conditions for their entire lives. Working with Dr. Bill, Sushil ji, Winrock International, and others over the past two weeks made me feel useful and purposeful, re-energized me for my work in Thapathana, and reminded me that I have valuable knowledge and experience to contribute here. My motivation, creativity, and confidence were all strengthened by my ability to partner with Winrock and take part in this training.”

Our Farmer-to-Farmer office in Nepal continues to keep Peace Corps staff abreast of upcoming volunteer trainings located in their zones of influence to further collaboration and the reach of our technical assistance.

Fruit and vegetable production is fundamental to food security and economic development in rural Guinea and efficient irrigation practices are vital for producers. Today’s blog comes from volunteer David Speidel, who trained members of the Microenterprise of Fruits and Vegetables Producers of Boulliwel in Guinea on water management and drip irrigation. David shares his reflections on the landscape and potential for agricultural success in Guinea.

“The Guinea Central Highlands of West Africa are a prominent feature of the region. These mountains block the early morning sun rays and during the rainy season catch the humid Atlantic air currents piling up the heavy air, into layers of clouds, making a glimpse of the sun shooting over the hills and under the clouds a rare and brief event at best. These rugged promenades of ridgelines, sheer cliffs, and peaks reaching 1,300 meters, for ancient range lack the smooth rounded hills expected of our mother continent. One rare afternoon, when the haze lifted, while I was looking west from the canyon west of Dalaba I counted nine, maybe eleven ridgelines formed in a north-south aspect, marching in echelon toward the Atlantic like some monster army of giants. In that regard the mountains are a force to be regarded with caution. Since it is this mountain barrier that must be breached by roads to reach the promise of prosperity offered by the iron and bauxite ore beneath the mountain and harvest the bounty of the land’s mangos and gardens of legumes that grow on its slopes.

 

The villages lay, nestled in the level folds of road every four to eight kilometers. The large towns, Kindia, Mamou and Dalaba occupy the important road junctures and the homes, street vendor shops and Mosques sprawl over the hills and up and down the valleys. In between are stretches of forested clad slopes, bare, nearly vertical walls of cliffs, and steep loam slopes in open sections of hillside gardens with short, six meter long, rows mounted up across the hillside to guide the coming runoff to outlets draining the runoff during the rainy season. Along the roadway are the promenades of granite, with balsa stone skins, standing alone, jutting into the sky or blocks of uplifted sandstone features crowned with the tropical vegetation makes the view unique. Found in protected places are the farms.

 

This is clearly a place where people are close to the land. Not once do I remember seeing a tractor. Everything is done by hand. The hand hoeing to mound up the garden rows in the deep loam along the second terrace landscapes which lay by streams or the making of new land on hillsides by mixing the barrowed soil with manure requires constant cultivation. The 3,000 milliliters of annual rainfall does provide the needed water. It also requires rebuilding the rows on the hillside and the drains in the valleys. During the dry season carrying of water in 20 liter buckets is another chore requiring hand labor to grow a crop. The small gardens that makeup the 26 hectare farm is worked by an association of individuals, lays near the village (Baadi) called Boulliwel. It is down in a valley below mountains raising 400 meters above which feed the springs that provide the water for the wells the women draw water from daily for their gardens. The farm association is at the end of a trail which runs two kilometers through a cattle pasture of scrub brush, burned each year to open the land to the sun and allow the grass to compete once the rains start. To reach the turn off of the unmarked trail one of the many dirt roads out of Boulliwel runs another two kilometers along the spine of a ridge high above the valley. This is the road that produce is carried to town for the weekend market.

 

The rangeland is a mystery. The scrub sends its roots deep into the cracks of granite that has only a thin entisol surface covered with scatted basaltic stones left eons ago. This early in the season between the dry and rainy period the land seems devoid of grass needed to feed the few horned cattle lying in the shade and chewing cud. Was this land once covered with the same red loam seen on the upper hill tops? Was it once fertile, only to have lost its topsoil to the demands of early agriculture? Today the scrub rangeland only supports sparse grass with the help of open fires to clear the brush that let the sunrays in and wait for the rains to come.

 

The rains come in the afternoons and late at night trailing into the early morning. The storms entertain with lightening shows and crack of thunder adequate to impress anyone familiar with our continental storms on the high plains. Then after the humid air has squeezed out its moisture, the clouds part and in one rare case the early morning rays peak over the high easterly ridge and splash a glow over the old crumbling French grandstand, sitting sad and forlorn in the abandon parade field now used for football. But before the image can be captured the sun slips higher back into the cloud shrouded haze. One last attempt was made when time allowed, plotting the capture of a sunset across the Dalaba canyon. The clouds were thick again blocking any view of the yellow sphere. Finally in a brief moment a deep red band, crossed a thin segment of the horizon. Rather than turning from yellow to orange and then darker shades of red it simply emerged and then slipped behind another ridgeline to close its day on this ancient continent and march westward across the Atlantic to the new world. Here in our higher latitudes sunrises over the Ozarks Mountains are long and colorful lasting 30 minutes for different shades of violet and purple in the pre dawns before reaching 30 minutes of the reds and orange colors ending up in yellow the late morning risers see. On the high plains the sunsets are longer yet and sparkle in the evening dust and can be enjoyed at leisure. In Africa the events are there, but shorter and difficult to capture. It takes both opportunity and planning. The beauty of this land is important to note and remember. But how to manage?

 

 

This is the question, how best to manage the land. To produce and harvest its bounty while ensuring its productivity is improved for future generations. How much of the steep hillsides can be reclaimed with additional soil and manure mixed into hillside mound gardens? This will depend on how much water can be moved, sustainably up from the lower valley streams and wells. And it will depend on how much produce can be marketed down the roads leading off of these mountains. Yes this is a land of giants, a giant called the Guinea Central Highlands.”

Constrained by a lack of resources, public extension services in Nigeria fall far short of the goal of one extension agent for every 800 farmers. In this context, agribusinesses and social enterprises like Babban Gona play a key role in expanding small-scale farmers’ access to training. Babban Gona (“Great Farm” in Hausa), an innovative agricultural franchise. uses an outgrower model, partnering with farmers to increase maize, soybean, and rice production in their own fields. The organization works with groups of smallholders to achieve economies of scale, providing access to low-cost and high-quality inputs and production materials and facilitating marketing of harvests. Babban Gona has built a corps of local extension agents to offer one-on-one support and production advice to over 5,000 farmers.

USAID Farmer-to-Farmer volunteer John Moulton worked with Babban Gona to improve its training and extension services. With volunteer support, staff revised their annual trainings and created systems for supporting extension agents. Community extension agents learned to assess farmers’ level of knowledge and training needs. They also created annual work plans with checklists to allow them to monitor their progress. In order to better serve farmers, agents now visit farms on a more regular basis and are available to answer any immediate questions by phone. Babban Gona also started using demonstration plots to share best practices with the broader communities in which their farmers live. Finally, Babban Gona streamlined service delivery by creating special service units responsible for managing distribution and post-harvest processes. The new system is much more convenient for farmers, reducing wait times for inputs and payment.

Other volunteer assignments provided support on soil management and marketing techniques. Based on volunteer recommendations, the majority of Babban Gona’s farmers now use crop rotation to maintain soil fertility and prevent damage from crop disease and pests. Extension agents were also taught to work with farmers to identify optimal plant spacing and fertilizer application rates. Farmers have noticed significant benefits, with many able to decrease the amount they spend on fertilizer each year. As a result of F2F assistance, Babban Gona farmers increased yields by 56% (from 3.5 to 4.6 tons) per hectare.

Improvements in Babban Gona’s ability to serve female farmers has been one of the most significant impacts of F2F support. Tolu Owolabi, Babban Gona’s Director of Human Resources, described how a simple idea resulted in a dramatic increase in women’s engagement: “The advice given to us by Winrock F2F volunteers to recruit more female extension agents to serve as role models and attract women farmers really helped a lot. It has never happened before that we have this huge number of female farmers applying to be Babban Gona farmers considering the environment where we work. But with the application of this idea, we now have 100 women applying to be part of the Babban Gona project.”

In addition, the knowledge acquired from these trainings assisted Babban Gona in making improvements necessary to win the 2017 Skoll Award. The Skoll Foundation presents the Skoll Awards for Social Entrepreneurship each year to a select group of social entrepreneurs whose innovations have already had significant, proven impact on some of the world’s most pressing problems, and invests directly in the promise of even greater impact at scale.  Kola Masha, Babban Gona’s Managing Director, made the following remarks

“Babban Gona farmers service limited wishes to appreciate Winrock for her diligence and cooperation in ensuring that both Babban Gona staff and member farmers get the best of up-to-date trainings through well-equipped and passionate volunteer trainers who have at several times of assignment given themselves to the training, improvement, and equipment of both our staff and member farmers for increased productivity. Your efforts have yielded great success, as your trainings did not only improve staff knowledge on agriculture but also improved both staff and member farmers development, thereby equipping them to face greater challenges and reducing crime rates to the greatest minimal.

 

Your excellent teaching skills and the admirable personalities of your volunteers has tremendously helped us through our journeys. Team Members were excited to learn new skills for seed production at our last training. The knowledge acquired from the trainings which were introduced into our activities has also provided our organization with the honor of acquiring the 2017 Skoll Award.

 

We greatly appreciate every form of impact you have made on us as an organization. We have learnt so much from you and we look forward to learning more, also kindly let us know how we may be of assistance to you at any time.”